Come on. Is that beverage worth it?

Choose a designated driver — one that will actually abstain from drinking, not one who just promises to limit drinking to one or two beers.

And if you’re hosting a party, be prepared to let some people stay over if they are too impaired. Let’s put aside the possibility of being sued if you let someone drive drunk from your place and they cause a collision. How would you feel if you made everyone go home only to get a call at work the next day telling you that one of them had died?

Regret like that doesn’t go away for a long time, if ever.

Have the phone numbers of at least two taxi services programmed into your phone and money for a ride. And as tempting as it might be to bet that money on your favorite team, don’t.

If you’re the host, post the numbers to several cab companies on your fridge for guests to use. I’ll make it easy for you. Here’s a list of cab companies in the Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., area:

Yellow Cab of Prince William County (main number): 703-491-2222
Yellow Cab of Prince William County – Stafford Area: 540-659-1200
Yellow Cab of Prince William County – Quantico Area: 703-640-6464
Manassas Cab Company: 703-257-0222
Red Top Cab Company in Arlington: 703-522-3333
Loudoun Yellow Cab: 703-437-9100
Alexandria Yellow Cab: 703-549-2500
Fairfax Yellow Cab: 703-534-1111
Yellow Cab of D.C.: 202-TAXICAB

Print this list and cut it out now… while you’re still sober. Put it in your wallet or tape it to your dashboard as a reminder.

Enjoy the game. Eat until your stomach hurts. Talk sports with your mouth full. Scream at the over-priced big screen HDTV. Help clean up (you know you should). And be safe, not stupid.

– KJ Mushung

As tempting as it'd be to drive one of these after a Super Bowl party, we don't recommend it... at least, not if you've been drinking. That'd be a waste of one seriously fine vehicle. Photo by: Arch Scurlock

NOVA's ice hockey team plays against Maryland in a Nov. 20 game in Prince William County. Photo: KJ Mushung

By: Arch Scurlock
Sports Columnist

After having suffered some lopsided defeats early in the season, NOVA ice hockey coach, Barrett Haga, finally found some time to smile after the second period of the Nov. 20 Sunday morning game against the University of Maryland at the Prince William Ice Center. Northern Virginia Community College was trailing only 2-0, despite having been outshot by 36-10.

“Our hard work has finally paid off. Our goalie is playing out of his head,” remarked Haga.

The third period saw NOVA take only 14 seconds to score its first goal by James Powers from about five feet out. UMD came back, however, to score the next three goals before James Powers scored at 11:49 from about 10 feet out on a one-on-one shot on the goalie, making it 5-2. Powers twice had one-on-one breakaway opportunities against the goalie during the game but was not able to capitalize on either.

NOVA next took advantage of a power play at 6:59 as Richard Orksider scored on a slap shot from about 25 feet out to cut the deficit to 5-3. NOVA could get no closer as UMD finally prevailed 6-3.

After the game, the coach exulted, “We’ve come a long way. The team is starting to come together, to gel as a team. Towards the end of the year we should make decent showings. We’re missing some key players today, but the guys played the best game they could have played as a team.”

The previous weekend, NOVA had traveled to southwest Virginia to play two games. On the Nov. 12 in Roanoke, NOVA fell hard to Radford, 12-1. However, the following afternoon, NOVA recovered from its late night beating to lead Virginia Military Institute after every period and hung on for a 7-6 win, NOVA’s second of the year.

Kevin Hastings had two goals and two assists and Casey Dunn added two goals.

The weekend following the Maryland game, NOVA traveled up north but did not receive much hospitality, losing 8-1 on Dec. 3 to Rowan University in New Jersey and then the following day 7-1 to Bryn Athyn College near Philadelphia, a team they had played much better against earlier in the season at home.

NOVA’s record stands at 2-11.

Arch Scurlock

Sports Reporter

The defending Virginia Community College champion men’s basketball team began its season in early November. Duplicating last season’s success, however, is not a given as most of last year’s team is gone. The only holdover players are forward Jonathan Ball and the injured Andre Allen. Jamal Fair returns from the 2009-10 team.

The team includes 11 freshmen and three new sophomores, all from the Washington, D.C. area. The team continues to be coached by sixth-year coach Mike Fitzmaurice with assistant coaches Sean Fitzmaurice, Michael Abdlejabbar and Joe Shoemaker.

Results to date have been close to last year’s team, which started 4-5. Through seven games this year, NOVA is 3-4.

NOVA’s first game was a big loss at 103-88 to a strong Hagerstown Community College team on Nov. 2. Next, in a tournament Nov. 4 and 5 at Catonsville, Md., NOVA notched its first win, over Chesapeake (Md.) College 100-86 before falling to the Community College of Baltimore County-Catonsville 77-70.

NOVA’s first home game at Annandale ended in a close 81-80 win over the College of Southern Maryland on Nov. 16. NOVA went out to a 41-36 halftime lead, led by Ball with nine points and Dominique Phillips with eight.

In the second half, NOVA streaked out to a 16-point lead 63-47 with about 14 minutes to go, but the game was not over. CSM came back to within six at the 10-minute mark and closed to within two at the five-minute mark.

NOVA continued to keep a small lead and led by two with a little over a minute to go, 79-77. NOVA’s Jamal Fair took a bad shot, and CSM made a basket with 23.9 seconds to go to gain a tie, 79-79.

After a timeout, NOVA worked the ball around, and Steve Pierre received a nifty pass and made a layup to put NOVA up 81-79 with 5.7 seconds left.

A timeout was taken and CSM inbounded the ball. Bringing the ball up the court, the CSM player was unable to get the ball to the free CSM player under the basket as he fumbled the ball under pressure. However, NOVA fouled with 0.7 seconds to go on an attempted shot. CSM’s Daniel Henry, who had already scored 20 points, had two foul shots to try to send the game into overtime. Looking a bit uneasy, Henry made his first foul shot but his second bounced off the front of the rim, and NOVA rebounded as time ran out, allowing them to escape with the close win. Pierre led NOVA with 17 points, and Ball added 16.

Coach Fitzmaurice exclaimed afterwards, “We’ve got a good ball team. We’ve got good ballplayers. They made a lot of mistakes, but we’re early in the season. As the season progresses, we think these mistakes will be minimized and we can play the kind of ball we did last year.”

“We did the same thing last year,” he said of not starting out well.

On the game tonight, he remarked, “We’ve got to practice a lot harder our fundamentals. We committed too many fouls. We turned the ball over too many times, and that let CSM stay in the game.”

Next, NOVA traveled to Baltimore on Nov. 26 and easily beat CCBC-Dundalk 100-74 in a typical run-and-gun NOVA win.

The weekend of Dec. 3 and 4 shaped up as quite a challenge for NOVA. The team traveled to North Carolina for the Davidson County Community College Storm Classic prepared to face two teams with a combined 15-2 record.

The first game saw NOVA fall to Davidson 87–73. The next day, in a slower game, NOVA fell to Spartanburg (S.C.) Methodist College 60-56. NOVA’s record thus sat at 3-4.

The remainder of December will see NOVA still on the road, playing four games, including two in New York. They return home Jan. 7 and 14 for two games before going on the road for four more away games.

The sophomores on the NOVA women's volleyball team were honored at the final home game on Oct. 27 in a match against Hagerstown Community College. Stephanie Quirk (psychology major), Monique Smith (biology), Elisavet Loukaidou (biology) and Samantha Bolte (business) accept flowers and gifts. Photo by Arch Scurlock.

Arch Scurlock
Sports Columnist

The Northern Virginia Community College women’s volleyball team, with the help of early-season successes, ended its 2011 season with a winning record at 13-12.

The team entered a busy October month of competition with a 7-2 record. After splitting its two matches in the three-team competition at the Annandale campus on Oct. 1, it traveled on Oct. 4 to Keyser, W.Va., to play the tough Potomac State College squad, where it dropped a three game to one match.

At a game Oct. 6 the team lost to another tough team, the Community College of Baltimore County-Catonsville, 3-0. A two-day competition over Oct. 8 and 9 in Hagerstown saw NOVA split four matches, including a second loss to Montgomery Community College-Rockville and a third time to Community College of Baltimore County-Catonsville, though closing the gap against Catonsville, losing only 25-27, 25-23, 20-25 and 25-27.

After one day off, NOVA hosted Trinity Washington University on Oct. 11 and beat them 3-0 for the second time this year to up their season record to 11-7. On Oct. 13 NOVA traveled to Columbia, Md., to play Howard Community College. Although NOVA had beaten them 3-0 less than a week earlier, this time Howard reversed the final result, winning 3-1.

On Oct. 18, NOVA played the tough Potomac State College Catamounts again, this time at the Annandale campus. The first game saw NOVA commit a number of errors as Potomac won easily 25-15. Game Two saw NOVA again not playing well as it got dumped 25-16.

Game Three, however, saw NOVA streak out to a 7-1 lead. Could they hold it to the end? Potomac slowly whittled away at the lead and edged it down to 11-7. Some good serving by NOVA’s Alanah Jones widened NOVA’s lead to 14-7.

NOVA still led 17-14 before Potomac scored three straight to tie for the first time 17-17. Potomac then scored three more on two NOVA errors and a spike before NOVA scored two to come back to within 19-20. A NOVA error stopped that streak as Potomac then widened the score to 24-20, finally winning 25-21. With the win Potomac increased its record to 19-2 while NOVA fell to 11-9.

Two days later on Oct. 20, NOVA hosted Frederick Community College of Maryland and beat them 25-10 and 25-17 in a shortened contest.

NOVA went back on the road for its next three matches. The first two were at Rockville on Oct. 22 as NOVA lost for the third time to Montgomery Community College-Rockville, but at least won a game 25-20. It then played a good Harford Community College (Md.) squad. The match stretched to five games as the first four games went 29-31, 25-16, 25-17 and 22-25.

NOVA then easily won 15-4 to increase its season record to 13-10 with two matches left, insuring a winning season record.

Next, on Oct. 25, it was off to Cumberland to play Allegany College of Maryland. NOVA had beaten them earlier 3-1, but this time Allegany shut out NOVA in three games.

Match 25 was against the strong Hagerstown Hawks at Annandale on Oct. 27. NOVA hoped to, if not win the match, then at least to win a game or two. Hagerstown came into the match having won its last 15 games in a row. Before the game, the four NOVA sophomores were honored for their play: Samantha Bolte, Monique Smith, Stephanie Quirk and Elisavet Loukaidou.

The first game saw NOVA streak out to an 8-0 lead, but the Hawks came back to 9-5. NOVA played near errorless volleyball as it held leads of 12-5, 13-8, 18-14 and 22-17. Hagerstown finally tied it at 24-all.

NOVA’s Monique Smith had two strong spikes, the second giving NOVA the lead at 26-25. NOVA was unable to capitalize on that lead, but at 27-26 a NOVA return twirled around on top of the net before falling back onto the NOVA side, depriving the team of the win. NOVA again held leads at 28-27 and 30-29 but finally fell to Hagerstown 32-20.
In the second game, NOVA errors helped doom it to a 25-13 defeat.

NOVA rallied for the third game, taking an early 6-1 lead. Hagerstown narrowed the lead, but NOVA held small leads all the way until the Hawks tied it at 15-15. Hagerstown then took leads of 19-15, 21-17 and 24-20. A NOVA point cut the lead to 24-21 and raised hopes for a comeback as NOVA regained the serve. However, the serve failed to get over the net, and hopes were quickly dashed as Hagerstown took the third game 25-21 and the match. Still, NOVA had given Hagerstown all they could handle for two of the three games.

With the win, Hagerstown’s record climbed to 22-7 while NOVA finished at 13-12.

“We had a great year with a small team. They hung in there well and did very, very good with each other,” related Coach Marcus Robinson after the match. “We played very well today. This was our last game, our last home game and sophomore night, so we were up for it.”

NOVA play Potomac State College on October 18. Photo by Kama Storie.

NOVA's Kasee Hilliard shoots a jump shot over a defending Howard CC player in NOVA's December 7 59-28 win at Annandale. Photo by Kama Storie.

Arch Scurlock

Sports Columnist

The Northern Virginia Community College women’s basketball team led almost the entire game on Dec. 7 at Annandale, easily defeating the Howard Community College Dragons of Columbia, Md., and more than doubling their score.

After Howard tied the score 5-5 early in the first half, it was all NOVA. They led 32-14 at the half, and the six-player squad kept up its strong play in the second half, winning 59-28.

NOVA’s tenacious defense forced many Howard turnovers, and Howard’s poor shooting sealed their loss. NOVA had three players in double figures, led by Carlie Zirkle (Marshall High School) with 18, along with Kasee Hilliard (Garfield HS) and Paris Cantrell (Freedom HS), both with 10. NOVA’s Halley Cummins (Oakton HS) made three 3-pointers for 9 points.

With the win, NOVA evened its season record at 4-4. Howard’s tough season continued as they fell to 1-7.

Coach Wayne Vincent commented after the game, “It’s tough to play with only six girls. They continue to work hard. They played with a lot of heart.”

NOVA closes out its first semester schedule with home games on Dec. 16 and 20.

The 2011-12 team’s original roster included five freshman and four sophomores, but only one player from last year’s team: Paris Cantrell. Two of the freshmen, Yvette Gilliom and Kasee Hilliard, attended Garfield High School.

The third-year coach is Wayne Vincent, who is continuing to work with assistant coach Shawn Blow and new assistant Lindsay Kyle.

NOVA had nine players available for its first four games, but then the active squad dwindled for various reasons to six players for the rest of the season. The coach is expecting to add several players in the winter semester.

The season began on Nov. 2 at Hagerstown Community College where NOVA absorbed a 51-66 loss, after being down 38-17 at halftime. Lashonntae Hewitt (Edison HS) had a big game with 19 points. Next up was a trip on Nov. 4 to Baltimore where NOVA lost a close one, 64-61, to the Community College of Baltimore County-Dundalk in overtime. Zirkle led NOVA with 17.

Next on the travel list was a trip to the Howard Community College Tournament in Columbia on Nov. 12 and 13. There the visit was much more enjoyable as NOVA won its first game of the year, 45-39 over Essex County (N.J.) Community College, with Gilliom scoring 15.

Then NOVA bombed Globe Tech (N.Y.) 51-33 the next day to even their record at 2-2 as they featured balanced scoring.

The first home game saw the College of Southern Maryland visit Annandale on Nov. 17. NOVA won easily 80-56, after taking a 45-29 halftime lead. Cantrell poured in 19 points with Zirkle adding 15. NOVA thus finished November with a winning 3-2 record.

December’s first action occurred at home on Dec. 2 versus Frederick Community College.

NOVA had only six players for the game, so Coach Vincent would rotate in a new player every few minutes, giving each player a hard workout. By halftime, CSM was the team having trouble, down 28-19. They were saved only by the play of sub Destinee Jernigan, who scored 11 of their 19 points. For NOVA, Zirkle matched Jernigan’s 11 points, which included her first two 3-pointers of the year.

The beginning of the second half saw CSM suddenly find the basket as two quick scores cut the NOVA advantage to 5. NOVA took the lead back to 9, but that was their greatest lead. With about 10 minutes to go, CSM had trimmed the lead to 33-30.

Finally, with about six minutes to go, CSM tied the score at 37-all. NOVA was having a hard time scoring points.

Despite repeated NOVA timeouts, NOVA still looked confused as the offense seemed to be playing helter-skelter. It wasn’t that the NOVA players weren’t trying their hardest. Poor shots were taken, the ball was stolen and, when NOVA did have a clear shot, the ball did not drop through the hoop. It looked like they would never score.

Zirkle finally did make two free throws and Gilliom one with about three minutes to go to give NOVA their last lead at 40-38. CSM then tied it at 40-40 at 2:20. Thoughts were then directed to the fact that CSM had lost three games by a total of four points. Would that hurt or help them in this close game?

It turned out that this game did not stay close for long. CSM scored one basket, then another after a steal. After that, began a series of seven straight free throws by CSM, leading to more points. NOVA was just not scoring. Then, NOVA called a timeout when they had none left, leading to a technical foul and two of the seven free throws made by CSM.

NOVA lost 51-40, outscored in the second half 32-12. Zirkle led NOVA with 14 points.

After the game, Coach Vincent remarked, “I knew before the game that two of our players were not going to make it. We gave it a good try, and we played our hearts out. We just ran out of gas. I’m awfully proud of the team.”

The next game did not provide a breather for NOVA as they journeyed over to Rockville to play the always strong Montgomery College-Rockville team on Dec. 4. NOVA went home with a lopsided defeat 77-48.

NOVA's Paris Cantrell shoots a short shot over a Howard CC player and appears to have been fouled in NOVA's December 7 59-28 win at Annandale. Photo by Kama Storie.

NOVA's Tori Woods-Lewis barely gets her shot over leaping Howard CC player in NOVA's 59-28 win on December 7 at Annandale. Photo by Kama Storie.

NOVA’s co-ed ice hockey team began its season on Sept. 16, and has played eight regular games through Nov. 5. The NOVA team has the inherent disadvantage of playing against four-year college teams, which can have older and more experienced players as well as the possibility of drawing players from four academic classes. In addition, some of NOVA’s games this year have been against teams from a higher level of competition, but others have been against teams from their Atlantic Division of the Blue Ridge Hockey Conference.

As with most NOVA teams, new players greatly outnumber returning players, and putting together a cohesive team during the short practice season is difficult. This year seven players from last year’s team joined fifteen new players.

This year has been particularly difficult for the NOVA ice hockey team, as it has notched only a lone victory in its first eight games, with many of the contests being routs. For instance, NOVA has been on the short end of 4-19, 0-10, 1-8, 1-20, and 1-10 scores.

On Saturday, Oct. 29, NOVA hosted a new opponent, Bryn Athyn College of Pennsylvania at Prince William Ice Rink. Bryn Athyn scored the only goal of the first period at 12:05 with three seconds remaining in a power play. Bryn outshot NOVA 15-7.

In the second period, NOVA’s Casey Dunn scored from about six feet out to tie the score at 1-1. Bryn Athyn then responded with two quick close-in goals at 4:23 and 3:45 for a 3-1 lead after two periods. NOVA was again outshot 15-8.

Bryn Athyn upped its lead to 4-1 after a minute of the third period. Dunn then had the puck on a breakaway, eluded the last defender and scored from about three feet out, beating the goalie on a one-on-one encounter. NOVA peppered the goal with shots during the period, outshooting Athyn by 12-5, but no more were successful, and Athyn took the 4-2 win, its second of the year.

Afterwards, NOVA’s Barrett Haga remarked, “I think we played our first two periods very, very sloppy. The third period was very strong, We’ve got a very young team this year…It’s going to take some time… chemistry to come along ..hopefully by the end of the year.”

On Saturday, Nov. 5 NOVA hosted the James Madison hockey team at the Prince William Ice Rink in an 8 pm game. JMU dominated the action, and had taken 17 shots on goal before NOVA took its first shot of the first period. By that time, JMU led 3-0.

NOVA did score, however, on a power play goal with 5:29 left in the first period as Dunn took the pass from Chris Altice from a face-off all alone on the right side, drilling a shot into the upper right side of the goal. At that time, NOVA at least had a high efficiency in goals scored, as it had made one of three shots.

JMU came back to score about two minutes later to make it 4-1 JMU after one period. JMU had outshot NOVA 27-5 in the period.

The second period saw NOVA take more shots but with no success. JMU led at period end 7-1, again having outshot NOVA 25-11.

The third period saw the clock mercifully run continuously. Only a fight with about six minutes to go slowed the clock. JMU made three more goals for its 10-1 win, as it again outshot NOVA 18-5. For the game, JMU amassed 70 shots, a busy night for NOVA goalie Curtis Mason.

With the win, JMU’s record rose to 3-2, while NOVA’s fell to 1-7. Casey Dunn’s goal was his third in NOVA’s last two games, the only goals scored by NOVA in those games.

Afterwards, the NOVA coaches remarked “Wow,” and “No excuses.”

Sports Columnist

 The NOVA men’s soccer team’s chances for a winning season rested on the results of its final game against the Stevenson University JV team in a match on Oct. 23 near Baltimore. NOVA had beaten Stevenson about a month earlier in a close game, 2-1, in Woodbridge.

This game was even closer as neither team scored in regulation time. NOVA kept up its strong effort in overtime but finally succumbed 1-0 as it ended its season with a 4-5 record.

In earlier games, NOVA played a Randolph College team in Lynchburg on Oct. 9, but fell 2-1. Later, on Oct. 21, NOVA journeyed to Lord Fairfax Community College and defeated the Cannons 3-1 to sweep the two games between the teams. The win evened the NOVA record at 4-4 before its final game.

Najeeb Baha, Athletic Trainer in charge of the Alexandria campus Fitness Center. Photo by Kama Storie.

By Malin Bergstrom

 He woke up one morning and could not move his left leg. His first thought was that his cousin had tied his foot to the bed – they often used to mess with each other. After a while he realized that also his left hand was totally numb. He managed to get out of bed and when he saw his own reflection in the mirror he freaked out.

“What the hell happened to my face?”

Najeeb Baha, only 13 at the time,had had a stroke.

 He regained the ability to walk and move after three months, but his face never fully recovered. However, hours spent at the gym and a wise grandfather made Baha become stronger in many dimensions. Today, at 33, he wishes to pass on this strength and the lessons he learned to the students he meets at the fitness center at NOVA’s Alexandria campus.

Baha is the oldest of four brothers. He was born in Afghanistan and came to the U.S. with his family 14 years ago. The first few years in his new country were hectic.

“He worked a lot to take care of the family, but he did make sure to spend time with me, too. He played with me and he took me to the park or other places I wanted to go,” said his youngest brother, Haseeb Baha, 18.

After a year in the U.S., Baha started taking some classes at NOVA and explained that since he “was always curious about things,” he studied everything from psychology to computers. In 2000, he was offered a job on campus.

“I took a PE class, mostly for fun and to relax myself. I guess the teacher noticed I was doing well,” he said.

Starting with a tiny room with three machines, he helped to establish a fitness center at the NOVA Alexandria campus. After two years he was working there full time.

“Najeeb is a personal trainer for everyone who asks for it,” said Mulengeta Mekonnen, a NOVA student and an employee at the gym since 2005.

For Baha, the duty of being a personal trainer is much more than just helping people with their workout routines.

His interest in strength training started after Baha had the stroke. He was embarrassed by how the incident had, as he described it, “deformed” his face, and he felt uncomfortable around people. The gym became his refuge. When he worked out he felt like people paid attention to his actions and not his appearance.

His grandfather, a tall and muscular wrestler, had always been a role model and a teacher for Baha. Their relationship became even more important during this period of his life.

“He was the one who always said I have to move on,” stated Baha while giving his grandfather credit for making him understand that appearance is not everything and that to succeed he needs to work with what he has.

This mindset made Baha successful when he was competing in Mixed Martial Arts. He never feared the strengths of his opponents but always made sure to focus on doing what he knew he was good at.

Today, when Baha helps students with their workout routines, he still has that notion in mind. He finds it important to understand a person’s abilities and ambitions, what skills they have and what goals they wish to achieve. Furthermore, he wishes the students, too, will learn to appreciate what they have and recognize what they can become.

“Sometimes I’m not really pushing myself, and then he reminds me that I have to try hard enough to reach my goals,” said Anthony De Gregorio, a student who has a football try-out coming up.

Baha wants to see the students succeed with whatever goals they may have, but he also wishes to pass on something his grandfather taught him about failure and moving on. He remembered how he once was told to look upon failure as an experience and make sure to learn from his mistakes. His grandfather also told him that he should always have optional solutions to problems he might encounter.

As a personal trainer, Baha wants to teach the basics and then leave it up to the person doing the exercises to experiment and find out what works.

“He wouldn’t give routines, but he taught me lots about technique,” confirmed De Gregorio, who explained that he used to be skinny but has managed to build muscles with the guidance of Baha.

To be able to communicate his ideas, Baha finds it crucial to establish a good relationship with everybody he works with. He stated that he knows “something personal about at least 90 percent of the people who come here,” and that it helps him to do his job better, as it simplifies the process of working toward the students’ goals.

When somebody walks into the gym, Baha is genuinely interested in knowing how that person feels – both physically and mentally. By making you feel welcome, his hope is that you will not only do your exercises and leave, but also “keep it with you in the long run.”

Creating a good atmosphere becomes a win-win situation – students get the most out of their workouts, and they return and even bring friends.

“I don’t go around asking people to work out, you don’t see fliers, it’s that bonding experience,” he said.

The increasing number of students who come to the gym – so far this semester over 200 people – might be taken as proof of the job Baha is doing. Mekonnen and De Gregorio, who is also an employee, have become good friends with their boss. They both like working for Baha, since they feel appreciated and respected for who they are.

“But he’s also a bit special. He likes things organized in a particular way,” added De Gregorio.

Baha feels comfortable when he gets to take on the leading role. This has sometimes left him working 12-hour shifts, but throughout the years he has become better at planning his duties and delegating tasks to others. Although, working at the fitness center is more like a hobby for him.

“Besides office politics and everything, I love what I do,” he said smiling.

When he was 13 years old he was ashamed of being around people. He locked himself in his room for over a month and for a long time had a limited social life.

Today, he gets his satisfaction from talking to everybody who walks in to the gym where he works. His mouth still gets a bit droopy when he is stressed and his eyes easily water when he laughs, but he has accepted that as a part of who he is.

Attitudes cannot be changed at one stroke, but one stroke can guide someone to a new way of living. Today, Baha gets up in the morning because he knows there is somebody out there waiting for his help.

NOVA student Olivia Wikstrom (Journalism and PR) gets fitness pointers from Athletic Trainer Najeeb Baha at the Alexandria campus Fitness Center. Photo by Kama Storie.

Photo by Kama Storie.

By Arch Scurlock

Sport Columnist 

This year’s Northern Virginia Community College women’s volleyball team carried over three players from last year’s 11-14 squad and added two new sophomores plus five freshmen.

At the end of the first month’s competition in September, the team carried a gaudy 7-2 record into what promised to be an arduous final month of competition in October. It would be playing 18 matches against often tough competition.

 Its October schedule started with a three-cornered competition on Saturday, Oct. 1 at the Annandale Ernst Gym. The first game featured a strong 13-3 Pitt Community College team from North Carolina playing NOVA, which was hampered a bit by only having few substitutes for the match. Pitt took it to NOVA quickly, winning the first game 25-14.

The second game was much closer throughout, with scores like 10-10 and 20-20.

With the score tied at 22-22, NOVA freshman Alanah Jones from Hayfield High School first served an ace, the team won the next point, and then Jones capped the win by serving another ace, making it 25-22.

NOVA hoped to maintain its momentum in the critical third game of the best-of-five match and did so early, streaking to a 6-1 lead, causing a Pitt timeout. Pitt regrouped and closed the gap to 10-8, but NOVA still maintained a several point lead until Pitt tied it at 16-16. NOVA then fell behind by a few points and two bad Pitt serves still only drew NOVA to within 23-20, from which it lost game three, 25-20.

For the fourth game, NOVA seemed to have expended its remaining energy in the third game. From a 5-4 lead, Pitt pulled away and won easily 25-12, taking the match three games to one.

After the match Coach Marcus Robinson remarked, “Once we came back to win the second game and were leading pretty well in the third game, we kept thinking they’d come back. One thing with these programs at Pitt Community College, they’re well-coached, they’re stocked with a deep roster. We had a chance. You just can’t ask for more… It does help a bit to have a deep bench.”

With the win, Pitt next played Delaware Tech which it quickly dispatched in three games, its reward being an early bus ride home.

After a brief break, NOVA played the final match of the day versus Delaware Tech. Tech gave NOVA probably more than it expected. Tech lost the first game by only 20-25. In the second game, NOVA streaked to a 17-4 lead and seemed to be waiting for the remaining points to 25 to be given to them, but Tech was in no such mood. NOVA had a 24-9 lead when Tech scored six in a row, but it finally succumbed, 25-15.

Game three was a close affair. NOVA enjoyed a four point lead, 11-7, after which Tech scored four in a row to knot the score at 11-11, bringing about a NOVA timeout. NOVA then stretched its lead to 15-11, but Tech came back again to tie it at 19-19. NOVA took a 21-19 lead, causing another Tech timeout, after which NOVA extended its lead to 23-20. Tech closed the gap to a point, 23-22.

With NOVA ahead 24-22, a bad NOVA serve left it at 24-23. But NOVA took the next point 25-23 for the game and the match, glad to have survived in the game. With its effort, Tech came the closest it had all year to winning a game.

With the win, NOVA upped its season record to 8-3 as Tech fell to 0-11.

NOVA next went on the road for eight matches. On Oct. 4, it traveled to Keyser, W.Va., to play 12-2 Potomac State College. NOVA played well, winning the third game 25-22, but overall lost three of four games and the match.

On Oct. 6 it was off to Catonsville, Md., to play the Community College of Baltimore County, which had already beaten NOVA earlier in the season 3-0. NOVA put up a good fight in the first game, losing 22-25, but only scored 19 and 17 in the next two games as it again lost the match 3-0.

At a weekend series of matches on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 at Hagerstown Community College, NOVA split its four matches. It first lost 3-0 for the second time during the year to Montgomery Community College-Rockville, then beat Howard Community College of Maryland 3-0 and Allegany College of Maryland 3-1. Finally, it lost for the third time this year to Community College of Baltimore County but at least won one game at 25-23 and lost by only 25-27 in the fourth and final game.

After this rough weekend, NOVA’s record stood at 10-8.

The next week brought the reprieve of some seemingly easier opponents. On Oct. 11, NOVA dropped Trinity of Washington there in three games for the second time this year. On Thursday, Oct. 13 it traveled to Howard Community College in Columbia. NOVA had beaten them 3-0 five days earlier but was surprised this time, losing 3-1 by scores of 22-25, 16-25, 25-23 and 22-25.

NOVA thus had an 11-9 record heading into the final seven matches of the year. NOVA had a chance at a winning record but faced a formidable schedule. It had beaten two of the teams earlier but already lost a total of three times to two of the other teams, and the other two teams also had strong winning records. To NOVA’s advantage, at least three of the matches were at home, the last being Oct. 27.